Yūjūfudan na Ren’ai
by Araiyou Shakyuli
Summary: Taking place after The Southern Raiders. Zuko hears Katara weeping in the night and goes to comfort her, but his efforts go a bit father than expected. Full Summary inside. Zutara, Kataang, Maiko. Rating may change in the future. CHAPTER 3 UP! 10/5/08
1. The World in which we live

A/N: Hello! This is my first attempt at an Avatar fanfic, and a Zutara one, at that! (I'm a Kataanger, plz no flames) Constructive criticism is greatly appreciated and wanted. I need to know how to please people with my writing, eh?

**Title**: **Yūjūfudan na Ren'ai**

**Summary**: Taking place after "The Southern Raiders"-- Zuko hears Katara weeping in the night and goes to comfort her, but his efforts go a bit father than expected, and they begin a nightly affair behind the others' backs. Soon, feelings develop between them, but not all those feelings are positive. How will they deal with their changing feelings as the day of the comet steadily approaches?

**Rating**: T to be safe, possibly M in later chapters.

**Pairings**: Zutara, Kataang, Maiko

--

**Chapter 1: Sumu Sekai Ga**

The night was quiet and calm on the island of Minami. The waves gently beat against the rock shore by the nearest hill, where a certain Fire Nation prince stood contemplatively silent; his amber eyes gazing over the water. He took in a deep breath, closing his eyes as he did so. The soothing sound of the waves crashing reached his ears, the repetitiveness of the motions sounding like an ancient mantra.

Everyone else had gone to sleep (or at least was presumed to be asleep.) Zuko decided it was time he had gotten some sleep as well; there was a lot of planning to do the next day as far as what Team Avatar's next move would be. He snorted lightly at the thought of the group's ridiculous name, which had been coined by the goofy but resourceful and intelligent Sokka. Despite their differences, Zuko had come to greatly respect him as both a fighting companion and a friend, and secretly delighted in the fact that he had come to accept him too.

If only the same could be said of his sister.

Ever since he joined the group, Katara had personally threatened his life on the occasion that he would hurt Aang or betray the group once more. He shuddered at the frightening memory, feeling uneasy. Although she had lately toned down her hostility toward him, it was still ever apparent.

He then recalled the events of the last few days, in which he had helped her find redemption for the death of her mother, and led to her forgiveness of him earlier that evening. He hadn't thought about it at the time, but the hug she had given him as thanks felt so good…she was small, soft and warm…he wanted to stay there a bit longer, but he knew that wasn't his place and blushed at the thought. After all, he had Mai.

Mai…

His thoughts immediately flashed back to the angry look in her eyes when he had tricked her back at the prison. They were angry, indeed, but the look of hurt and betrayal was what struck him the most…despite the fact that it pained him to see her like that, he knew his primary concern was getting out of the prison and continuing fulfilling his destiny.

He suddenly became worried when he remembered her betrayal of Azula. Was she going to be all right? Where was she? And…was she alive?

He quickly shook his head to remove the unnerving thoughts flooding his brain. _I can worry about her later. I'll find a way to rescue her after this is done. Right now, I need to get some sleep for another big day._

Sighing heavily, he began to make his way back to camp. _Let's see, my tent was over past here and to the le…hmm…what's that sound?_

He turned his head in the direction of the strange sound and advanced cautiously. When he was closer, he soon recognized it as someone crying. He looked around and realized it was coming from Katara's tent. _Oh, it's Katara. She must be mourning her mother…_Thinking that she would prefer to be alone, he turned to go back to his tent. Before he got very far, he heard another heart-wrenching sob. Slowly, he turned around and gingerly peeled back the tent flap. The young waterbender was curled up in a fetal position with her covers wrapped tightly around her. She had stopped weeping, but he could see that she was shaking uncontrollably. He looked upon her helpless form with a deep sense of empathy. He had wanted to burst into tears when his father refused to tell him where his own mother was. However, there was the possibility that she was alive, so he had a bit of hope, but unfortunately, Katara did not have the luxury of hope where her mother was concerned.

All her hope was gone…

Before he was aware of it, he had reached out and touched her shoulder, at which she immediately sat up and took a defensive stance. Zuko shielded himself with his arms as he cried out, "Katara, it's me!" He knew all too well what Katara was capable of, and was none to eager to experience it.

Still defending himself, he nervously tried to explain. "W-well, I…was going back to…m-my tent, and I heard you crying, so I came to see if you were all right." He slowly peeked over his arms to see Katara's expression return to sadness.

"Oh…well I'm fine, so you can leave," she said firmly, turning away from him once again. Zuko lowered his arms. "Katara," he said sympathetically, "It's okay to cry about it. It's okay to be angry. You shouldn't feel embarrassed. "I'm not embarrassed!" she snapped stubbornly, whirling around to face him. Fresh tears were threatening to fall from her ocean blue eyes.

The sight made Zuko want to embrace her once again.

"However," she murmured, "I AM angry. No, I'm FURIOUS. I should have made that cowardly bastard pay for what he did to my mother!" She instinctively brought her hand to her necklace. "He had no right. He had…no right…to do that to me…to us, to our family…" Unable to hold back her tears, Katara wrapped her arms around herself and began sobbing again. Zuko went over to her and slowly wrapped his arms around her and began stroking her back. Katara didn't even object as she buried her face in his chest and continued to sob her heart out.

After a few minutes, she had begun to calm down and settle more comfortably into his arms. Zuko gave a small smile, holding her tighter just enough so he could rest his head on top of hers. The sweet aroma emanating from her soft, brown locks intoxicated the young prince, giving him strange but pleasurable feelings in his nether region. Realizing what he was doing, he immediately blushed. It was so wrong. _I shouldn't be doing this. I need to go._He froze up when he felt Katara disengaging herself from his arms.

"Zuko…" she said, looking up at him. "Thank you for everything these last few days." He nodded in reply, not even paying much attention to her words. Her beauty was so captivating, how had he not realized that before? His eyes wandered down to her lips, which he soon found that he wanted so much to kiss for the longest time now that he was here with her. He moved his head a bit closer, accidently making contact with her lips. Both of their eyes shot open in shock. Zuko quickly racked his brain for the best excuse he could make for his mistake, but Katara surprised him by closing her eyes and running her hand through his hair as she deepened the kiss.

Surprised and a bit confused, Zuko looked around anxiously, then broke the kiss. Katara slowly opened her eyes and frowned as she turned her head to the side. "I'm sorry," he mumbled. "I didn't mean to--"

"No, it's okay…I actually kind of needed that." She broke away from his arms and began to lie back down. Seeing that as his cue to leave, Zuko began to leave the tent when Katara asked:

"Can you come back tomorrow night?"

Zuko froze in his tracks, considering whether or not to say yes. He liked Katara, he did, but he was already obligated to another. Then again, it was only a kiss…and how bad could a kiss possibly turn out?

"Sure." He flashed a small smile, which she returned. He walked back to his tent and lie down on his sleeping bag and let out a small groan of frustration.

_What am I doing? I should've told her I can't…but what kind of excuse would that have been? I'm so pathetic…besides, I couldn't just let her down, not when she was crying like that…_

He rolled over onto his back and put his hand to his head.

_Agni, what will I do?_

_--_

**A/N:** Well, that's it for the first chapter because I'm feeling a bit lazy and school's about to start and I have to catch up on summer reading and such and such and such….:P

So, what'd you think? Want more? Review and tell me what you think, please and thank you! :D

Oh, and here's the translation for the titles and chapters. I'll be naming the chapters in Romaji (Romanized Japanese) because they're lyrics from a song, which is kind of where I got the idea for this fic.

Indecisive Love

The worlds we live in


	2. The Things important to us

A/N: Hey! I'm back with the next chapter! Sorry for taking so long to update…I'll try to update sooner in the future. I hope you'll enjoy this one as much as the first, and don't forget to review! Speaking of which, I'd like to thank all my reviewers, **kekeg13, LittleGloriaFaith, ell25, BrokenAvenger21, XORooeru, Ephesians5.19, Saranha de Angelo**, and **skitzofrenic** for all your wonderful reviews, suggestions, and support. It means more than you know! Happy reading! :D

* * *

**Chapter 2: The Flashback**

_It was a peaceful day in the Southern Water Tribe. Snow softly fell to the ground as the sun cast orange-yellow hues over the landscape. This annoyed a certain young water tribe girl, who was currently working tenaciously to finish her snowman. Sunset meant dinner would be ready soon, and dinnertime meant playtime was over for the day. Fortunately, time was on her side today, and she was almost finished._

_"Just a little more here and…perfect!" she said. _

_"Katara, Sokka, it's time to come in!" a female voice called._

_Katara turned to see her mother, Kaya, standing in the doorway of their igloo, just a few yards away. She began to run to her with her hungry brother in tow, who raced past her and into the house, not wanting to miss another moment of dinner. _

_Katara ran straight into her mother's waiting arms, as was their unofficial ritual everyday before dinner. As she lifted her daughter into the sky, she commented, "My, Katara, you're getting to be so big!" Katara giggled as her mother set her down on the ground and turned to go inside the house. "Wait, mommy, I wanna show you something," Katara said, pulling on the hem of her skirt. "Okay, sweetie," Kaya replied. "But you have to close your eyes!" Katara commanded. Kaya laughed as she took her daughter's hand. "All right, all right. And I won't peek either."_

_Katara smiled and began to pull her mother in the direction of her creation. When they reached their destination, Katara announced, "Okay, you can open them now." Kaya opened her eyes to see a short sculpture of snow shaped like a woman, with seaweed for hair and two rocks for eyes. "I made a sculpture of you, mommy," Katara said proudly. Kaya smiled and kissed her daughter on the cheek. "Oh, Katara, I love it." Katara beamed with happiness. "Thank you, mommy. I worked really hard to make it look just like you, because you're the most perfect woman in the world!" Kaya picked her daughter up and embraced her. "And you're the most perfect daughter in the world." _

_Katara looked at her mother and in that moment and decided she would grow up to be just like her. She would be as strong, brave and kind as her mother was. Perhaps even as beautiful. "Now," Kaya began, "Why don't we go join the boys for dinner, eh?" Katara yawned and replied, "Yeah…" Her mother began to carry her back to their house, and she snuggled into her mother's bosom as she whispered, "I love you, mom."_

* * *

Sorry this was so short, I'll try to type the rest of chapter 2 by the end of this week! Review!

DeceitAnon, 9/9/08 (T's birthday! (o)


	3. The Way we Live

A/N: Hello…I is a horrible author….T.T I know I said I'd update within two weeks, but then I got bogged down with schoolwork and other miscellaneous obligations, THEN I had writer's block for a while…eh, but I'm just givin' excuses. I hope that this'll make up for all that time.

Thanks again to all reviewers, and happy reading as always! D

* * *

Chapter 3: Ikigata ga

The morning greeted Katara cruelly as she awoke with damp eyes and a melancholy disposition. She sighed heavily and closed her eyes, trying to hold onto the memory just a bit longer. It's been a while since I had that dream, she thought. Still, I wish I could've kept my promise… Familiar waves of shame and guilt passed through her as she thought of the promise she made. She had failed to make her mother proud by exuding the same admirable traits her mother had in life. She didn't even have the strength or the courage to avenge her mother's very murderer. Her brows furrowed irritably at the thought of Yon Rha and his pathetic, cowardly face when he begged for his life at the moment of confrontation.

_I should have made him suffer just as she did, that scumbag…he even had the audacity to offer me his own mother's life!_ She was a bit emotionally hollow at the time, but now that she thought about it, it disgusted her more than anything else she had witnessed in her life. Perhaps she was a bit biased because of what he had done, but she didn't care. After all, he was the person she hated most in the world. He was sick, twisted, pathetic, and—

"WRRRRRAGHHLLLLGLL."

Her inner rant was abruptly interrupted by a strange growl from her protesting stomach. Katara reached over and pulled back the tent flap; it was barely sunrise. She grimaced and fell back on her sleeping bag, covering her face with her hand and running it over in frustration. Rolling over on her side, she decided to do a bit of journaling since she hadn't in a while. She reached into her bag a pulled out a seal-skin journal her mother had given her when she was about five. Although she hadn't found much use in it for a few years, ever since the start of their epic journey, she began to write in it regularly as they faced major obstacles in their quest.

She opened up to a fresh page after the one she had written about the failure at the invasion and began to write about the journey she had taken with Zuko to face her mother's killer and how disgusted and angered she was with him, continuing into the resolution of the matter and her feelings about it.

She paused a moment when she wrote Zuko's name. Her hand found its way up to her lips and brushed them gently as she recalled the memories of the previous night. It was the second time she had ever been kissed in her life, but she noticed it was different, somehow…it was soft and gentle, but she had detected just a hint of passion in his kiss, before he got embarrassed and pulled away. That was somewhat cute, she thought as she blushed at the memory.

Zuko's kiss was different from Aang's kiss. He was forward, confident and abrupt, but it was still very light and tender. She remembered that it had briefly given her the sensation of flying…but it also confused her, to a point. She hadn't really thought that Aang thought of that way, even though there were some instances where she had thought it was possible, and this brought new and foreign feelings to the surface where he was concerned.

From time to time, she had wondered in she would end up with Aang, especially since she had received that fortune in their encounter with Aunt Wu in their earlier travels.

_"I can see that he's a very powerful bender…"_

_"Man, sometimes I forget what a powerful bender that kid is."_

The words of her brother and the seer echoed through her brain as she desperately tried to attach some sort of sense and meaning to them.

She sighed exasperatedly at her confusion. Could be destined to be with Aang?

Another growl from her stomach told her that she would have to think about that later. Grabbing a change of clothes and a water canteen, she emerged from her tent and headed to a nearby stream to wash up.

* * *

"Okay," Sokka said, spreading out the atlas on the ground. "We are currently here at Minami Island. We need a place to hide that's closer to the Fire lord's palace." Everyone was seated in a neat little circle around the map eating breakfast.

Zuko out his bowl down and wiped his mouth as he said, "Let me see the map." He leaned over the map and scrutinized it closely for a bit. "Well, there is Ember Island. It's relatively close and we can get there in two days."

"Yeah, but where would we hide? In a cave somewhere?" Aang asked.

Toph let out a groan. "Please, not that again. It's always so damp in those places and it makes my feet stink."

"But your feet always stink," Sokka quipped.

"Yeah, I know, but the dampness makes it worse."

Sokka rolled his eyes. "Maybe if you wore shoes…"

"Hey, put a cork in it, Snoozles," she snapped. "At least I don't snore."

Sokka looked uncomfortable. "Hey, it's a serious problem…" he said defensively. Suki giggled and pushed his shoulder playfully. "Don't worry. It's cute." He placed a sloppy kiss on her cheek as she giggled even more.

"_ANY_way…" Zuko interjected, annoyed, "We need some place to hide until the comet comes. Preferably, somewhere I could teach Aang firebending discreetly."

Katara, who was sitting next to Zuko, suggested, "We should hide in a place they'd be least likely to look or visit. Like a deserted village or something."

Zuko thought a moment, and then exclaimed, "I know where we can go!"

"Where?" everyone asked.

"There's an abandoned beach house on Ember Island. It's huge and on a hill high above the others. No one will suspect anything there."

"Why's that?" Aang asked.

Zuko's temporary excited expression hardened a bit. "It's our family's old beach house. We used to go every summer, but we stopped going about a year before my father became Fire Lord." He looked at the ground. "Before everything fell apart," he added softly.

Noticing his change in mood, Katara gently touched Zuko's shoulder with a look of sympathy. Zuko smiled at her in turn, his eyes seeming to say "thank you." This did not go unnoticed by the rest of the group, especially by a certain young airbender sitting directly across from them who immediately looked tense.

"Looks like you're finally warming to Sparky, huh, Katara?" Toph joked, which got a huge reaction out of the three teens, who all responded with furious blush, albeit for different reasons.

"I-I'm just showing a little sympathy, nothing wrong with that…" Katara mumbled, trying to regain her composure. She couldn't help but notice, however, Aang's unwavering gaze, which seemed to linger on her for eternity. She soon found herself wondering what he was thinking as he continued to stare, which she found herself doing more and more since the day of the Invasion. It was strangely unsettling to her, but it was incredibly hard to ignore.

Suki quickly changed the subject. She stood up and declared, "Well, since our plans are set, we should pack up, huh?" Everyone agreed and promptly went to pack their things.

As Katara walked back her tent, she noticed Toph come up to Aang and lightly punch him in the shoulder. "What was that for?" he snapped irritably.

"Relax, Twinkle-Toes," she mumbled in a low voice. "Listen, what I said about Sugar Queen and Zuko was a joke. Don't let it bother you so much, okay?"

Aang looked at her and nodded, then glanced at Katara, whom he noticed was watching, blushed a bit and hurried off in the direction of his tent. Katara felt a pang of guilt strike her heart. She had no idea she was hurting Aang until today.

_But why was he so upset about what Toph said? It wasn't like we had kissed or anythi…wait, that's right, we did…but he doesn't know about that_, she thought. It was at that moment she caught Zuko looking at her worriedly. She realized that her worry was probably plastered all over her face was unaware of it.

This is going to be an interesting day, she thought sarcastically.

Later, when everything was packed, the group took one quick look at the map once more. "Okay, since it's gonna take about two days to get there, we'll need some place to stay for the night in between. There's not quite enough room of Appa for all of us to sleep," Sokka said.

"You're just saying' that because you like your 'space', Sokka." Katara said sourly.

"Chill out, Katara. I'm sure everyone wants theirs as much as I want mine."

Everyone rolled their eyes at this, knowing that he had been sleeping in the same tent as Suki and vice-versa, which they seemed to be oblivious to the fact that everyone knew.

"Well, we need to get going if we wanna make it there in time," said Aang. Everyone agreed and walked over to Appa. Sokka got on first, then helped Toph up (and then Suki, of course.)

Aang climbed on top of Appa's head and positioned himself to fly. He turned around to make sure that everyone was on before they could take off, but was surprised at the twinge of jealousy he felt when he saw Zuko helping Katara into the saddle. The cause for it escaped him slightly, but he knew it had something to do with the way she grabbed onto his hand, and how much more gently he had hauled her up…it hadn't been like that before…as a matter of fact, she wouldn't even let him even touch her before.

_Wait a minute, Aang...maybe she's just being grateful. I mean, after all, he did help her avenge her mother's death...well, sort of. Agh, I'm just worrying over nothing._

Aang swiftly and quietly regained his composure and made sure everyone was on board.

"Appa, yip-yip!"

* * *

A/N: Yeah, so there ya go. Hope you liked it. Rate and review and all that goodiness.

D


	4. Author's Announcement aka LIFE! LIFE!

October 2nd, 2010

Greetings!

This is a formal announcement declaring that I have decided to pick up the story again. I was browsing and was like "Oh yeah…I got a story lingerin' on here." Much to my dismay, it is only 3 chapters, brimming with unrealized potential. And seeing how many people were interested, I feel a bit disappointed in myself for leaving yet another project unfinished.

Dakara! [So,] I will keep working on this. In addition, it's been two years, so my writing will have improved a bit, and I'm not depressed anymore, so expect a bit higher quality. :D I can't exactly promise you a date, but I'll try to get the chapter up by the end of the month. I've already started brainstorming, and will make time to write. (In between college visits, huge projects, algebra, play rehearsal, and the like. I have a lot goin' on this year, so be easy on me, please!)

Happy [future] reading!

-DeceitAnon


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